Be Angry Now No More
Be angry now no more!If I have grieved thee--ifThy kindness, mine before,No hope may now restore:Only forgive, forgive!
If still resentment burnsIn thy cold breast, oh ifNo more to pity turns,No more, once tender, yearnsThy love; oh yet forgive!...
Ask of the winter rainJune's withered rose again:Ask grace of the salt sea:She will not answer thee.God would ten times have shrivenA heart so riven;In her cold care thou'dst beStill unforgiven.
Words in this poem
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Be Angry Now No More is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Listeners and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22569; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, Be Angry Now No More, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/be-angry-now-no-more.html, id L17085.
Form and metre
Be Angry Now No More is 18 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 56% of the lines. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 39% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-AA- moreA · if · beforeA · restoreA · forgive
- 2 A-AA- burnsA · if · turnsA · yearnsA · forgive
- 3 AABBCCBC rainA · againA · seaB · theeB · shrivenC · rivenC · beB · unforgivenC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Be angry now no more! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| If I have grieved thee--if | 6 | ······ |
| Thy kindness, mine before, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| No hope may now restore: | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Only forgive, forgive! | 6 | /˘˘/˘/ |
| If still resentment burns | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| In thy cold breast, oh if | 6 | ······ |
| No more to pity turns, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| No more, once tender, yearns | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thy love; oh yet forgive!... | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Ask of the winter rain | 6 | ···/˘· |
| June's withered rose again: | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Ask grace of the salt sea: | 6 | ······ |
| She will not answer thee. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| God would ten times have shriven | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| A heart so riven; | 5 | ···/˘ |
| In her cold care thou'dst be | 6 | ······ |
| Still unforgiven. | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.